Sometimes you learn the hard way...

This blog post is not easy to write. I just want to put that out there. I debated even posting this but here I go. Yesterday started out like any morning. I got up early to be at the farm at 6:45. I’m been working ever since I arrived on the arrival of chickens in the village. I made many trips to Kigali to talk with someone who is knowledgeable about chickens, learn about and buy vaccines, purchase the food, get heaters, and a few other things to prepare for their arrival. I’ve been so excited and told everyone about their arrival. I even told one of the people here that I was going to set up my tent by their house so I could check up on them in the night (I think she thought I was serious and she said I was crazy). I got a call soon after I arrived at the farm from the assistant director of the village, Alain. He told me that he found a place to get chickens but we must pick them up today! I couldn’t believe it…we were actually going to pick them up.

I had a meeting that I needed to go to in order to inform all the counselors where their family would be working on the farm on Saturday. I gave my announcements and headed back to the farm to set up the chicken coop for the arrival of its new residents. We had all the supplies but we didn’t have anything set up because we didn’t expect to get them so fast. I had such a blast with the workers setting up the coop. We spread out wood chips and laid out food and water. One of the workers came in and asked how the chickens know how to get into the laying boxes and lay their eggs there. I was asked this question through another one of the workers who speaks English well. I told him that it was his job to sit in the box and teach the hens how to do it. They couldn’t believe I said that…all the workers looked at me like I was crazy. I told the worker that knows English that it was a joke and then all the workers were laughing. We have so many fun bonding moments.

I left around 1 for Kigali. We brought a truck with us that had the back closed because it was raining. We had many errands to do while in Kigali, before and after getting the chickens. After a few errands, we went to pick up Alain’s brother who was going to help us get the hens. We drove out to pick up the newest members of the Agahozo family. We got 300, 45 day old hens and placed them in the back of the car. We had more errands to do including picking up one of the kids at the hospital. We had to wait a while at the hospital. Time works so differently here…nothing is quick. We noticed that the back was getting warm so we made sure the windows were open.

We arrived back to Agahozo around 9:30 and headed to the chicken coop to unload the new arrivals. As we began to open the boxes, we noticed that some of the chickens weren’t moving. We lost 95 of the 300 hens. It hurt when the reality hit me. I felt like crying(no tears came though). I had many thoughts and emotions that were coming to me. Why didn’t I insist on coming straight back to Agahozo? I should have opened the back to allow more air. Lots of I wish and I should have…sometimes lessons are learned the hard way. I know what I’ll do next time. Whenever people make mistakes we have the phrase all least no one died…in this case they did…and it’s hard. The director of the village was understanding and comforting. There were still a few that didn’t look good. I walked back to the coop by myself to check on the hens and move the dead ones away from the others.

It was around 11 when I was back at the coop. It was great to see others ones busy eating and drinking. It’s hard for the ones that we lost but I realized that now we have 205 to tend to. I went over to the ones that didn’t look good and tried to encourage them (in the morning we only lost one of the ones that didn’t look good from the night before).
In the morning it was hard to explain what happened to the workers. Finally the one that speaks English arrived and helped to explain. Some of the workers helped me dig a hole.

I wrote this post when I was upset. It helped to write this to put out there how I feel. I know that it’s a bit dramatic but sometimes it happens. Last night and today weren’t easy. It’s part of being a farmer. Sometimes you learn the hard way. I feel much better now. The girls in my family came over after dinner. We drank tea, listened to music and took pictures. They’re so much fun to be around!